The data on the number of measles cases in the first quarter of 2024 published today in the integrated measles-rubella surveillance bulletin of the Higher Institute of Health. Matteo Bassetti and Pierluigi Lopalco: “We need an urgent vaccination campaign”.
THE data on measles cases reported in the awards months of the year in Italy alarm the experts. THE numbers for the first quarter of 2024published today by the ISS in the integrated measles-rubella surveillance bulletin ofHigher Institute of Health, according to experts, it indicates an emergency that is already underway and which is destined to worsen further in the coming months, particularly in the summer.
According to ISS data, in the period 1 January – 31 March 2024, 213 cases of measles were reported in Italy with a national incidence equal to 14.5 cases per million inhabitants. Fifteen Regions reported cases in the period examined, those with the most cases are Lazio, Sicily and Tuscany which alone reported 68% of cases. The highest incidence is precisely in Lazio with 44.9 cases per million inhabitants.
Among those infected, 165 cases (88.2%) were not vaccinated at the time of infection, 11 cases were vaccinated with one dose, nine cases with two doses. For the others the vaccination status is unknown. Fifty-six cases (26.3%) reported at least one complication. The most frequent complications were hepatitis or increased transaminases and pneumonia. A case of encephalitis in a young, unvaccinated adult was also reported. 48.8% of cases were hospitalized and a further 38 cases went to an emergency room. The transmission occurred mainly within the family. Twenty cases occurred following transmission in hospital settings, 19 in work settings, 13 cases during international travel and six cases in school settings. Eleven of the reported cases are healthcare workers, including six who are unvaccinated.
Measles among adults also in Italy, Bassetti: “In Genoa 5 cases in 7 days, complications are serious”
Numbers that “confirm that unfortunately an epidemic has started in 2024” commented Matteo Bassetti at Adnkronos Salute. According to the head of infectious diseases at the San Martino polyclinic in Genoa, “it is only the beginning and the worst is to come”. “I fear that the worst will be at the turn of the summer. The affected population is unvaccinated or with only one dose, between 15 and 40 years old. It strikes me that no one is worried about complications: it is not a calm and manageable disease, if you catch it as an adult it can be serious and cause complications” added Bassetti asking for “the intervention of the State which must protect itself with vaccinations”.
Pierluigi Lopalco, professor of Hygiene at the University of Salento, is also on the same line. “This explosion of measles cases is one real emergency that is passing under silence of institutions. The alarm lies in the fact that measles is a disease in the process of being eradicated, so even a single case in our country should cause concern” explained the expert. For Lopalco “it is urgent to raise our guard and call all those , especially adolescents and young adults, who have never had the disease and are not vaccinated.”
